In pictures: Auschwitz

Auschwitz Birkenau is now a museum run by the Polish Culture Ministry, and a Unesco world heritage site.

Auschwitz, or Oswiecim, is a small city, Birkenau or Brzezinka, a large village.

Life goes on as normal outside the camp gates.

Inside, the museum is taking steps to preserve what it controls - to stop the crematoria from disintegrating completely, and to stop the thousands of victims' shoes and the piles of hair from rotting away.